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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23965513">i hate accidents (except when we went from friends to this)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelilacfield/pseuds/thelilacfield'>thelilacfield</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff and Smut, Self-Indulgent, Weddings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 16:29:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,544</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23965513</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelilacfield/pseuds/thelilacfield</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>'Hi! I’m Wanda Maximoff, I’m twenty-seven, and I love nothing more at the weekend than causing drama by going to weddings with someone who wouldn’t normally have a date. But really, I like weddings, and I know how much it sucks to go to a day that’s all about love alone. So, for a low price, I’ll go on your arm and we can make up a story about how we met on the Uber over. Very willing to cause as many family arguments as you want!</p><p>Open to creative suggestions for stirring up havoc! Send me a PM for rates :)'</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Wanda Maximoff/Vision</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>118</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>i hate accidents (except when we went from friends to this)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong>A/N:</strong> This is very silly and self-indulgent, but if you can't write fluffy fake dating fic in times like these, when can you? Hope everyone enjoys, I'm on Tumblr and Twitter @mximoffromanoff if anyone wants to chat :)</p>
<hr/><p>Vision folds himself down into the armchair, casting a cursory glance at the game Sam is playing, some sort of shooter, and says, "Well, it finally happened."</p><p>"Gonna need to be more specific than that, big guy," Sam says without even looking up. "You finally stopped being a perfectionist about your end-of-semester project? You finally stopped hiding behind shelves in the library when you see your ex? Nebs finally asked Mantis out on a date before we all die and our cause of death is listed as useless lesbians?"</p><p>"None of the above," Vision says, and tosses a cream envelope down onto the table. Sam straightens up, pauses the game, and casts him a sympathetic look as he says, "My dad's getting married."</p><p>"Gossip blogs will be seething that I learned that before they did," Sam says, and sets his controller aside to move over and set a sympathetic hand on Vision's shoulder. "You okay?"</p><p>"I thought he wanted to take me for lunch to catch up," he says quietly, Sam squeezing his shoulder at his deadened voice. "We haven't seen each other in almost a year. But he just got very quiet and blurted out that he asked Pepper while they were in Tokyo for business last month."</p><p>"So is that a save the date?" Sam asks, and Vision nods wordlessly. "When's the shindig?"</p><p>"Six months," Vision says. "He...he asked if I wanted to be a groomsman."</p><p>"Do you?"</p><p>"I don't <em>know</em>." He stands up, overwhelmed with the frenetic urge to pace, and he can feel Sam's gaze following him back and forth. "I barely know him, he...he just met my mother while he was studying abroad, years and years ago, and if she hadn't died maybe he never would've come forward as my father. And he...Morgan is his real kid. His do-over."</p><p>"Has he ever actually told you that he thinks Morgan is his do-over?" Sam asks, and Vision grits his teeth at logic. "Come on, she's cute as hell but I've seen your baby photos. You were cute too. Maybe this is some misguided way of making it up to you."</p><p>"Does he really think that asking me to be involved in his wedding makes up for twenty-five years of not being a real father?" he asks, and Sam leans back on the sagging couch cushions.</p><p>"He's trying," he says, and Vision looks away. "My old man, he...he just walked out and never looked back. At least Tony is trying now. He never needed to come forward and tell the world he had a kid. The scandal could've ruined his relationship."</p><p>Remembering that, remembering flashing cameras at a press conference while his father claimed him in front of everyone, while Tony Stark told a clamouring public that he was proud of his son, Vision sighs and rubs the heels of his palms hard into his eyes. "I know," he finally says. "I know all that. I just...he's really getting married. Pepper won't just be my father's girlfriend anymore, she'll be my stepmother. It'll be different."</p><p>"Maybe it'll be a family," Sam says bracingly. "Mom's boyfriend has always been good to me and my sister. Pepper's sweet. Morgan's adorable. You don't have to be a groomsman - but you should go." Vision sighs, and Sam sternly says, "You'll regret it if you don't."</p><p>So Vision sends his father a cursory message, a simple <strong>I'll come to the wedding</strong>. He bites his lip when he gets back <strong>Great. Love you, kiddo</strong> and tries to ignore the wildfire of conflict it makes rise in his chest. He answers when Pepper Skypes him to talk about dress codes, and lifts Morgan onto her lap so she can chatter about her flower girl dress, and he isn't resentful. He behaves.</p><p>The months roll past, and he's packing to fly out to Malibu for the ceremony when he gets <strong>So, you bringing a special someone to the wedding?</strong> from Tony. Since the day he found out who his father really was, Tony has never dropped the topic of his love life, always asking whether he has some new girl on the horizon. Boasting about his playboy youth, until he gets a certain look from Pepper or he remembers that Vision's mother was just another girl to him. It would be fine if Pepper didn't ask to, if she didn't give him pitying looks and say <em>You're so sweet, I'm sure it'll happen!</em> And he's tired and irritable and dreading the inevitable madness of a weekend surrounded by Tony's friends, but that's no reason to lie in his cheerful reply <strong>Yes! Bringing my new girlfriend! She can't wait!</strong></p><p>Which is how he ends up clicking on an ad in the early hours of the morning to hire a no-strings-attached date for a wedding. Scrolling through profiles, shuddering when he sees one he recognises as someone he knows, and finally clicking on one at random whose picture catches his eye. A pretty dark-haired girl, grinning at the camera, a glass of what is presumably champagne in hand and a red dress hugging a slim figure.</p><p>
  <em>Hi! I'm Wanda Maximoff, I'm twenty-seven, and I love nothing more at the weekend than causing drama by going to weddings with someone who wouldn't normally have a date. But really, I like weddings, and I know how much it sucks to go to a day that's all about love alone. So, for a low price, I'll go on your arm and we can make up a story about how we met on the Uber over. Very willing to cause as many family arguments as you want!</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Willing to do any of the following:</em>
</p>
<ul>
<li><em>talk about our fictional sex life in great detail to your parents</em></li>
<li><em>wear white and upstage the bride</em></li>
<li><em>pretend to get much, much too drunk</em></li>
<li><em>fake having sex in the bathroom during the speeches</em></li>
<li><em>dress in something far too slutty for a wedding</em></li>
<li><em>get into an argument about politics with a bigoted relative</em></li>
<li><em>fake a proposal</em></li>
<li><em>announce that i'm pregnant</em></li>
</ul><p>
  <em>Open to creative suggestions for stirring up havoc! Send me a PM for rates :)</em>
</p>
<hr/><p>Vision gazes across the table at the young woman he came to meet. Wanda Maximoff mercifully looks just like the picture on her profile, dark hair pulled up in a ponytail, pretty face, sharp collarbones above the straight neckline of her striped jumper. He wouldn't know from anyone else on the street if they hadn't exchanged messages agreeing to meet up like this, and now she's staring at him from across the table as her beringed fingers stir her iced coffee. Finally, she's the one who breaks the silence and asks, "So you're basically paying me to spend a week in Malibu at some fancy wedding? It seems like you're doing me the favour, not the other way round."</p><p>"My relationship with my father is...complicated," he says, and she laughs.</p><p>"Half the people who hire me have daddy issues," she says, and he casts his eyes down, his gaze away from hers. "I just want a little background. You agreed to be a groomsman despite this 'complicated relationship'." He bristles slightly at the air quotes she puts around the words, but shifts in his seat and takes a sip of his strawberry lemonade as he tries to sort through his feelings, make them into some sort of concise summary.</p><p>"He was an absentee father until my mother died," he finally says, and Wanda's face slips into a mask of sympathy. "I was fifteen when she got the terminal diagnosis. He took me in when she died. I was sixteen, my mother had just died, and he tried too hard. He's always tried too hard. Right up to asking me to be a groomsman."</p><p>"Could've been worse," she says lightly, and he looks up at her in shock at her boldness. "He could've asked you to be his best man." She leans back in her chair, smiles slightly, and says, "I'm sorry, my therapist says I use jokes and deflection to distract from my trauma. What I <em>meant</em> to say is: I get it. My parents died when I was ten."</p><p>"Oh." He stares at her, at the freckles across her nose and the mist that veils her eyes, and says, "I'm very sorry for your loss."</p><p>"And I'm sorry for yours," she says. "We can support each other through this wedding. Not that I need much support for spending a week in the Malibu sunshine at some super-fancy resort hotel. Exactly how much money does your father have?"</p><p>"He's Tony Stark, so...a lot." Wanda splutters into her glass, and when she looks up her eyes are wide. "What? I thought you knew who I am, I was all over the news when Tony came forward about being my father."</p><p>"I'm sorry, if you want people to know who you are maybe you should go by <em>Stark</em>, not Shade!" she exclaims, dabbing at her mouth with a crumpled tissue. "I'm invited to <em>Tony Stark's</em> wedding?!"</p><p>"Oh, is...is that a dealbreaker?" he asks. "I'm sorry, I thought you knew. I know my father isn't always...popular with the public. You don't have to come."</p><p>"No, no...it's fine," she says, but there's still a strange shadow over her face. "It's a free week in Malibu, I'd be an idiot to pass that up."</p><p>"I can prepare you as much as possible," he insists. "My father can be...a lot. Too much, some might say. It's a big wedding, a whole week of parties, so..." He trails off, fingers tightening around his glass, and finally says, "It's very nice of you. To keep me company through it all. My father invited my roommate, but that's only one person in six hundred guests-"</p><p>"Six <em>hundred</em>?" she asks, and he nods. "Holy shit. The last wedding I was hired for was a family affair in the backyard and I was invited because the girl wanted to piss off a homophobic aunt. This is...a whole other level."</p><p>"You'll only really need to remember the wedding party's names," he says soothingly. "And a lot of them are in the news often enough you'll recognise them. Tony has...famous friends."</p><p>"Like who?" she asks, her head tilted in curiosity. Her eyes wide and so green, and her lips slightly parted, and Vision can't help but feel like he's bitten off more than he can chew. He can practically feel Sam at his shoulder, making fun of him for developing a crush on someone he's paying.</p><p>"Well, I should warn there will be armed guards at the ceremony because one of my father's groomsmen is T'Challa Udaku."</p><p>"I'm sorry, the <em>king of Wakanda</em> is going to be at this wedding?!"</p>
<hr/><p>Malibu is blazing with sunshine as usual, and Vision is glad for having chosen the lightest clothes he owns to wear on the plane. Sam is openly fanning himself with one of the complimentary magazines from the flight while they wait for their bags, and Wanda is standing to the side, bottle of water in hand and staring at the spinning luggage carousel. She's been quiet on the flight, head buried in a book, and it's making him nervous that she'll remain the same in front of his family.</p><p>Once they've managed to retrieve all their luggage, he shepherds the two of them out into the parking lot, and sees Wanda's eyes widen when they see Happy standing out front holding a sign emblazoned with <em>VICTOR SHADE, SAM WILSON, WANDA MAXIMOFF</em>. Sam heads happily off towards the car, suitcase rattling on a jammed wheel, but Vision reaches for Wanda's hand and whispers, "I know. If this is too much, you can turn back."</p><p>"My roommate would never forgive me if I came back with no stories about this," she says, a small wry smile on her pretty, freckled face. "Look, you already paid me. I'll stick this through with you. Can't have a bad review on my profile."</p><p>"But you're under no obligation-"</p><p>"Vision, I am getting a week in Malibu on a billionaire's dime," she says, and reaches up to push his hair gently out of his face. It sends a shiver down his spine that he fights to hide. Sam teased him enough just for saying his wedding date for hire was pretty, he doesn't need him suspecting anything more. "I have no reason to complain. I'm just gonna ride this out until it's over." She drops her hand and links her fingers with his and he takes in a deep breath as they approach the car.</p><p>"So this is the girlfriend?" Happy asks, giving Wanda a once-over, and Vision nods, unable to find words. "Your dad's been insufferable about her. Keeps going on about how he wants grandkids, even though he has his own kid right now."</p><p>"How is Morgan?" Vision asks, and Happy beams.</p><p>"Little ray of sunshine, as always," he says, and Vision automatically goes to help Wanda into the car before he climbs in beside her. It feels natural, even though he's never brought a girlfriend to Malibu to meet Tony before. Natural even though she isn't even his girlfriend. Natural even though he <em>paid</em> her to be here, to be a buffer between him and the strange emotions this week turns up. "I promised her I'd bring her back a cheeseburger. Then I gotta drop you three off at the hotel and go pick up someone else."</p><p>"I would've thought the crazy rich people coming to this wedding would all have their own drivers," Sam says, leaning luxuriously back in the leather interior. "I'm expecting a fleet of limos outside this hotel."</p><p>The hotel is stupidly enormous, reminding Vision instantly of the way his father revels in a luxurious lifestyle. The beach house, the holiday homes on three continents, the private jets, the Stark Expo twice a year. It's a world he was never allowed into for the first sixteen years of his life, a world his little sister is growing up in. This is the world he'll be submerged in for the week, reporters and security guards and private drivers.</p><p>Morgan emerges from the hotel, and he can finally feel himself relax. Whatever his feelings on his father, Morgan is a sweetheart, the family he can love without complication. He can laugh at her standing in front of Happy, hands on her hips, and demanding, "Cheeseburger."</p><p>When she sees Wanda, she looks almost shy, and Vision bends down to her level, smiling at her. "I missed you," he says, and she smiles slightly. "Morgan, this is Wanda, my girlfriend. Wanda, this is Morgan, my sister."</p><p>"Hi," Wanda says softly, tucking her hair behind her ears as she leans down. "I like your dress."</p><p>"Mommy said I couldn't wear it before the party tomorrow, but Daddy said I could if I stayed inside," she says, and fidgets with the pale yellow skirt. "Daddy's waiting for you inside. He said you need to go talk to him."</p><p>"Of course he did," Vision says, quietly so she doesn't hear. He straightens up and says, "Will you entertain Wanda and Sam while I talk to Dad, Morgan?" He can hear her already starting to tell a story as he walks away, and smiles softly to himself.</p><p>The smile slides away when he catches his first glimpse of his father. He's dressed in a pale beige suit, an arm around Pepper in blue, and they're holding court amongst a collection of friends, people Vision recognises as names in birthday cards. James Rhodes and Carol Danvers-Rhodes and Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter-Rogers and Bruce Banner and Clint Barton and Thor Nordskov and Natasha Romanoff. People who are household names, important people. People he feels like a shadow next to.</p><p>"There you are!" Tony shouts, and breaks out of the circle to cross the room and take Vision in a hug. A few pats on the shoulder before he draws away, and Vision rolls his shoulders and forces a smile onto his face. "The prodigal son returns!" He looks behind him, and asks, "Where's the girlfriend? I want to meet her."</p><p>"Morgan's entertaining her," he says, and Tony's eyes soften at the mention of his daughter. Vision wonders if his father ever softens like that when he's mentioned, but shakes it off as he's borne across the room to Tony's friends.</p><p>The small talk fills the minutes, all of his father's friends needing caught up on his life, needing to hug him and tell him he's even taller than the last time they saw him, Pepper smiling and gentle and kind, but then Tony's eyes narrow and he calls out, "Morgan Maria Stark, who is that girl?!"</p><p>"Vision's girlfriend!" Morgan says brightly, and Vision sighs before he turns around. Morgan is clutching Wanda's hand, dragging her along, and Wanda gives him a helpless look before she smooths her face into a smile.</p><p>"This is Wanda, Dad," he says, pushing to Wanda's side and putting an arm around her, fingers curled over her waist. She leans against him and he pushes away the frisson down his spine. It's not real. "I told you the story."</p><p>"You didn't tell the rest of the wedding party!" Tony says, and gives a grand sweeping gesture to the knot of people. "Tell them how you met the other half!"</p><p>With his fingertips wrinkling the thin cotton of Wanda's shirt, Vision tells the story. The tale they invented over lunch in a quiet bistro, told back and forth between them like a perfectly choreographed dance. Meeting for the first time at a bar, a night of buying each other drinks concluding in numbers exchanged, a first date of a movie and dinner, a perfect normal romance. Wanda smiles at all the right moments, looks up at him with affection-bright eyes, and he's hard-pressed to keep his breathing even.</p><p>As Tony shepherds them upstairs to their room, dominated by a double bed with its frame hung with gauzy curtains, Vision waits until Wanda's back is turned as she gazes out of the window to pinch the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger.</p><p>This may be a very bad idea.</p>
<hr/><p>Hangover showered off, Vision descends the stairs and finds his father already in a fine fettle. More than he should be after the welcome party descended into karaoke that carried on caterwauling until a horribly late hour. Sam was in his element, bouncing around charming people, and Vision just sat on the sidelines, trying not to be annoyed when Tony's friends kept trying to engage him in conversation. He can blame that lingering undercurrent of resentment on the amount he drank.</p><p>Breakfast is already laid out, and he helps himself to toast and tea. Sam is sitting between Natasha and Carol, flirting with both of them while they smile bemusedly at him, so Vision bypasses him and goes to Wanda. She's curled up in a corner by herself, head in a book, and when he slides into the seat next to her she looks up and smiles in a way that makes his heart skip. "You're not too hungover then?" she asks, and he shakes his head. "Even after sleeping on the floor?"</p><p>"Not so loud," he whispers. "Tony kept asking me questions about you last night. He believes us, we can't ruin it."</p><p>"Maybe I'm just the type of girlfriend who doesn't want to share a bed when her boyfriend comes back stinking of whiskey," she says, and he winces. "Oh, don't worry. You smell much better now."</p><p>Just as they settle back into a sort of companionable silence, Morgan scrambles onto the bench next to them, dark hair bobbing in pigtails. "Mommy said I have to keep you company on the beach," she says, feet kicking in glittery sandals. "Daddy and all his friends want to go out on the boats and she knows you don't want to."</p><p>"So what do you want to do today, peanut?" Vision asks, and Morgan beams.</p><p>"Will Wanda come with us too?" she asks, and Wanda looks up from her book. Vision sees the hope in his little sister's eyes, and wonders if Morgan will be upset when he inevitably has to tell her that he and Wanda broke up. When all this is over and there's no point faking it anymore.</p><p>"I get seasick, staying on dry land sounds fun to me," she says, and Morgan smiles even wider.</p><p>The sun is blazing and the private stretch of beach is perfect, a crescent wrapped around the blue of the ocean. Vision stabs an enormous striped umbrella into the ground and sets up his towel beneath it, watching the much older members of the wedding party struggling into wetsuits, ready for an afternoon of speedboats and waterskiing and swimming in the sparkling stretch of the ocean. "So why aren't you out there?" Wanda asks, laying down her own towel and stretching out on the sand. He's distracted for a moment by the length of her legs in denim shorts, then Morgan dives between them and nearly hits him with her spade.</p><p>"I don't like deep water," he says, and Wanda squints at him over her sunglasses, still arranging herself. "Fell in a pool before I learned to swim, the usual story. And I burn far too easily to be out on boats all afternoon."</p><p>"Aw, you poor pasty Englishman," she coos, and pulls a bottle of sunscreen out of her bag. "Lie down. Shirt off. Let me get your shoulders, I don't want to spend the rest of the week having to rub aloe all over you."</p><p>It's only Morgan's proximity that keeps Vision's mind on the straight and narrow. She's babbling away in her five year old way, talking about sandcastles and looking for starfish and maybe finding signs of a mermaid, and it keeps his mind just enough on the fact that he's got to watch his little sister while her parents are out showing off on the water. Enough to stop him thinking too hard about Wanda's fingers on his shoulders, his back, smoothing sunscreen into his skin, somehow magical. The ridge of a ring digs into his hip and he has to suppress a shiver, until she sits back on her haunches and he grabs his T-shirt back.</p><p>Maybe it's wishful thinking, but he hopes that he did catch Wanda looking at his chest before he dresses again. But then she hands him the bottle and tugs her shirt over her head, and he tries not to openly gape at her, the red bikini that there's nothing really provocative about but that sets his head spinning. Morgan continues chattering, now telling them about dolphins, and Vision is glad that Wanda isn't looking at him, that she won't know how much his hands shake before he sets them on her skin. Her skin is warm beneath his palms, soft, and there's a small sound that makes him shake his head to clear it of any more <em>intimate</em> ideas.</p><p>His little sister is sitting right next to them.</p><p>When Wanda straightens up, she doesn't put her shirt back on, and Vision silently curses whatever deity watches over him for this very personal brand of torture. For making him admit to himself that he has a crush on a girl he'll never see again after this week, for making him share a bed with her, for making him be around her and his little sister at the same time. For being an idiot who hired a wedding date and expected his lonely heart to not fall at least a little bit.</p><p>"What do you want to do, peanut?" he asks Morgan. Perhaps a little too loudly to cover up the long silence between him and Wanda, the way they sneak glances at each other from the corners of their eyes. The way her breasts rise when she reaches up to tie her hair in a messy bun, the way his eyes fall and he quickly snatches his gaze away before Morgan notices.</p><p>She's contemplating him with narrowed eyes, waving her spade in a more than slightly threatening way, and finally says, "Build a sandcastle. It's a competition."</p><p>"But who's gonna judge us?" Wanda asks, shifting onto her knees and smiling at Morgan, and Morgan grins.</p><p>"You are," she says. "Me and Vision will build one each. You have to pick the best one. And you can't pick his just because he's your boyfriend."</p><p>"But I can't <em>not</em> pick his because he's my boyfriend, that's not fair," Wanda says, and Morgan considers this for a minute. "I'll judge fairly, okay?" Then she drops Morgan a wink and says, "But I'm sure yours will be much prettier," and Vision's heart swells watching her with his sister. It's not fair. There should be something wrong with her. She can't be perfect, pretty and funny and good with his family. She can't be the ideal girlfriend</p><p>The afternoon is punctuated by shouting from the ocean, from the crowd who are laughing and crowing at each other whenever someone falls in. Vision sits quietly constructing his sand castle with Morgan's spare bucket, finding a piece of driftwood to act as a door. Morgan is in her element, creating a moat and studding her construction with seashells, and she's clearly the winner before Wanda even looks up to judge. "So what do you want to happen to the loser, Morgan?" she asks, and Morgan grins, looking so wickedly like Tony.</p><p>"Bury him in the sand!" she shouts, and Vision has to submit to his sister scooping sand over him. Lying on the warmed ground, only slightly worried that he'll burn, he looks up at Wanda. Her hair is falling out of the tie, her eyes bright, more freckles breaking out on her pretty face, and the sun haloes her in hold. When they're finished burying him, Morgan standing over him triumphantly, Wanda leans down and kisses his cheek. Her hand is resting on his stomach over the layer of sand, and he can still feel her lips when she moves away.</p><p>"Christ, you really are red. Get out of the sun, I'll get more sunscreen."</p>
<hr/><p>Vision wakes up in the quiet of sunrise, and rolls over to look over the barricade of decorative pillows Wanda set up between them. She's not there, and he takes a book and a towel and pads downstairs. The breakfast bar isn't set up yet, and when he glances out he sees a familiar head of dark hair in the pool, looking out to the beach and the watery quality of the sunlight.</p><p>Wanda pauses her laps when he walks out and sets his towel down, folding her arms over the edge of the pool and resting her chin there, smiling up at him. "You're out early," she says, and her eyes glint. "Stayed away from the whiskey last night?"</p><p>"I think I ate too much pizza for alcohol to penetrate," he says, and she laughs. He stares down at her, the innumerable freckles dotting her nose and cheeks, her eyes so bright, hair slicked back and streaming into the water, and the silence seems to crackle with tension. "So...two more days of this. Then it's over."</p><p>"Feels like falling out of a fantasy," she says, and he silently agrees. Real life isn't the sort of place where a girl like her would look twice at him, let alone curl into his lap and slow dance with him and kiss his cheek in front of his family. A girl like Wanda wouldn't charm Tony, wouldn't make Pepper pull Vision aside to tell him she thinks this girl could be the one, wouldn't make Morgan ask eager questions about when they can come back to visit after the wedding. He gets this for a week, then life sinks back in.</p><p>"Life with my father is a different sort of life entirely," he says, and she smiles slightly. She has a small dimple in her right cheek when she smiles like that. He wants to kiss it, to move his mouth to hers, kiss her in this silvery sunrise light. Slide into the silken water with her and let whatever happens happen.</p><p>"It's fun for a holiday," she says. "I'm not sure I'd like this all the time. Feeling like someone is always watching me. Like I...like I have to be perfect all the time."</p><p>"You've been perfect all this week," he says, and she rolls her eyes. But he still sees the colour that blooms high on her cheeks, and pursues it. "Sam thinks you're great. You've charmed my father. Pepper is practically begging me to stay with you. Morgan adores you. All those people think you're sweet."</p><p>"You're paying me to be perfect," she says, and he shuts his mouth. None of his thoughts matter, his fantasies, the moments when they're sitting close and their eyes meet and it feels like something more. When their plane touches down back in New York, the contract between them will be over. "Can I ask you a question?" He looks down at her, distracted momentarily by the way her breasts are pushed up against her arm, and hastily looks at her face when she says, "You didn't ask for anything to stir up drama. No fake pregnancy or political arguments or drunken shenanigans. If you didn't want that, why did you pay for a date?"</p><p>"I..." He trails off, trying to sort through the mess of his own thoughts. "I guess I just wanted...a friend."</p><p>"A friend?" she asks, and he nods. "What about Sam?"</p><p>"Well, I...when I first messaged you, I had all these thoughts." He moves towards the pool, legs dangling over into the water in his shorts, and she moves back to look at him, hair swirling around her and lightly tanned shoulders breaking the water in little ripples. "That I'd ask for all those extra services. We'd cause so much drama. But then...I don't know." He sighs, swirls his feet in the water, and says, "It's much easier to turn my father into a villain when he's far away. But when I'm here, and he's nice to me, and I remember that I love Morgan, that Pepper has never treated me like anything less than a son, I...it's complicated." Wanda is watching him, he can feel the prickle of her gaze, and he looks up and finds the green of her gaze. "I still love them. Despite it all."</p><p>"That's okay, you know," she says. Very softly. Barely audible over the sound of hotel staff moving around inside, setting up the day's breakfast. "It's okay to love them even when it's complicated. Love your family while you have them." Her face darkens, her eyes misty, and he kicks himself.</p><p>"You're the last person I should throw my family drama onto," he says gently. "I'm sorry."</p><p>She looks up, and a grin breaks out over her face like a sunrise. "You can make it up to me by coming in swimming," she says, and he shakes his head. "Oh, come on, it's not that deep, you're a giant, you'll have two feet firmly on the ground."</p><p>"Absolutely not," he says firmly, and a wicked spark fills her pretty eyes.</p><p>She pulls him into the pool by his ankles, hard enough for water to splash out over the sun-bleached tiles, and when he surfaces and spits water she's laughing. Her eyes are bright and she wriggles away when he tries to catch her and dunk her under too, climbing out of the water and wrapping a robe around her that does absolutely nothing to hide her, clinging to her wet skin.</p><p>He's absolutely, utterly, hopelessly fucked.</p>
<hr/><p>The wedding is perfect. Of course it is. It's a dream of a day within a dream of a week, from the moment Vision wakes up with Wanda sitting up in bed next to him, silently handing him a cup of sweet black coffee while she reads. He's wearing a suit that matches the king of Wakanda, welcoming hundreds of famous faces to his father's wedding, and Bruce Banner is giving him a tired smile and saying, "Rhodey and I can handle the last few. I think I saw Wanda at the bar with Natasha."</p><p>Vision pauses in the doorway for a moment to look at her. A red dress is wrapped perfectly around her, a slit in the hem showing off her legs, and when she laughs at something the infamous Carol Danvers-Rhodes says he imagines for a moment that it's real. That she's his girlfriend, she'll be with him at every one of these circuses that follow his father around. Then he goes towards the trio, puts an arm around her waist, sends Natasha and Carol looking for their husbands and enjoys a quiet moment away from the cameras.</p><p>Then he's standing behind his father at the altar, watching Pepper float down the aisle in a Janet van Dyne original, Morgan skipping ahead of her throwing red and white petals in her yellow dress, and he's listening to his father promise fidelity forever. There's so much light in his eyes, but Vision notices his hands shaking, notices the tears that cling to his eyelashes. It's perfect, and he feels one of those rare but sudden rushes of love for his father. For what he's made right.</p><p>Wanda is next to him at the head table, their legs brushing between their chairs, her lipstick leaving marks behind on glasses and cutlery that he wishes were on his skin. And he shakes off the thought that he's jealous of a fork to listen to the speeches, laugh along with the room. Rhodey talks about Tony's playboy years, teases him about the time it still took for him to admit his feelings for Pepper, mentions wrestling his phone from his hands at his wedding to Carol to stop him confessing to Pepper after ill-advised shots. Pepper's father only threatens Tony a little to stay in line and keep his daughter happy, and Morgan runs onto the floor between her parents during their first dance to a chorus of cooing.</p><p>Vision dances with his new stepmother, smiles when his father says in his speech, "I'm happy to have <em>both</em> of my children with me today. Victor and Morgan, I love you three thousand," and Wanda squeezes his hand beneath the table. He twirls Morgan around the dancefloor on the tips of his shiny shoes, toasts to the happy couple in a knot of Tony's friends, takes the floor with Peggy Carter-Rogers and Carol Danvers-Rhodes and Laura Barton and Natasha Romanoff. Names that are always written with a measure of reverence to them, turned into men and women laughing and spilling drinks and ruffling his hair.</p><p>Sam taps him on the shoulder at the end of his third dance with Natasha, grinning rakishly and asking, "Mind if I cut in?" Vision just lets him slide in, watches Bruce on the sidelines giving his wife a tender look, and goes back to Wanda. She's been mostly quiet, her feet dangling in their heels, and he holds out a hand to her.</p><p>She slides into his arms, her cheek pressed against his chest, and they sway to the music. "Thank you for keeping me company," he says softly, almost lost in her hair, and she looks up and smiles softly.</p><p>"There's still time for you to ask for one of my special services," she says. "I can still randomly announce a pregnancy."</p><p>"No, it's alright," he says, and she smiles. "This is perfect."</p><p>"Well, you're still paying me to cause a little disruption," she says, and reaches up to cup his cheek. Her ring is warm on his skin, and her eyes are bright, and when she reaches up to kiss him he doesn't pause to question it.</p><p>They stagger upstairs as the evening winds down, descending into the close knot of Tony and Pepper's friends sitting around one table reminiscing, Morgan asleep like a puppy curled at Tony's feet. Wanda smiles into Vision's eyes and pulls him into their room, locking the door behind them. She kisses him, brings him down with her onto the bed, shoves the decorative pillows aside and unknots his tie with practiced fingers and promise in the curve of her smile.</p><p>He had too much champagne. He's dreaming. That's the only explanation for watching her undress, leaving her earrings and necklace and rings in a pile on the nightstand, watching the thin strap of her dress curl down over her arm, her fingers at the buttons of his shirt. Their clothes in a crumpled pile, her weight on top of him, her lips on his and her hips rocking into his stomach, a whispered, "<em>I want you</em>," against the shell of his ear that sets his head to spinning.</p><p>Her hands are everywhere, smoothing over his skin, and when she sinks onto him she tips her forehead against his and kisses the moan from his lips. He never believed the atmosphere of a wedding could get to him like this, the dreamy day, but here he is with Wanda in his lap, <em>inside</em> her, kissing her and whispering her name and hearing his in return. He's sprawling out on the bed when it's over, and she's kissing his chin and calling him cute and curling up in his arms, both of them slick with sweat and champagne tipsy and smiling.</p><p>When he wakes up, they're still curled around each other. Still naked, and he sits up slowly, untangling himself from her arms. Morning has hit with a fuzziness in his head, stale champagne at the back of his throat, and the matter of his naked fake wedding date to deal with. When he steps out of the steam of the shower, he sees a hickey at the base of his throat, mercifully low enough for a collar to hide, and he finds Wanda sitting up in bed, lazily smiling at him.</p><p>"Yesterday feels like a dream," he says, and she laughs.</p><p>"Well I've got some aches to prove it happened," she says with a pointed glance at his crotch, and he clutches tighter at the towel around his waist.</p><p>"Why?" he asks, and she tilts her head. "I...it was fake. We're not together. I, for one, I...you're pretty, and I noticed. But you...you were faking it."</p><p>"Honey," she breathes, and the pet name makes his heart skip a beat, the flush creep up his neck. She moves towards him, clever fingers curling around the towel and pulling it away, and she wraps an arm around his neck and pulls him down to her level, a breath away from a kiss. "If you think I was faking it, you'll need to try again."</p><p>They make each other very, very late for brunch.</p>
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